“Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck’ Rocks Specialty Box Office

Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck raised some box-office hell this weekend and appears headed to 2015’s biggest non-fiction debut, even with only partial numbers available this morning and an HBO debut coming in about a week.

On the dual-platform side, Adult Beginnersacted like a VOD veteran, racking up $211,000 there, nearly five times as much revenue as in its theatrical day-and-date debut for RADiUS. Adult Beginners – starring Nick Kroll, Rose Byrne and Bobby Canavale – hit No. 11 on iTunes by Sunday morning and 12th on Comcast’s Xfinity.

HBO Documentary Films opened the Cobain doc in limited qualifying runs over the weekend ahead of its May 4 HBO debut. The only available numbers were for Friday and Saturday showings of the Brett Morgen-directed title at the Arclight Hollywood, the Egyptian in Seattle (where Cobain’s band Nirvana came to prominence) and IFC Center in New York.

The Sundance and Berlin feature grossed a robust $107,055 in the three locations over Friday and Saturday. Despite the lack of Sunday numbers, the film easily out-grossed the opening numbers for other 2015 documentary debuts including Dior And I ($45,772), The Salt Of The Earth ($44,900), Ballet 422 ($27,656) and Seymour: An Introduction ($26,587).

A three-theater average gives Montage Of Heck a $35,685 PTA. The title played mostly at the huge Dome theater at the Arclight, though additional showings were added in other screens sporadically throughout the weekend.

The film’s intended forum, however, is on HBO, which typically gives its doc titles a week in theaters prior to heading to the premium channel, which typically keeps theatrical numbers low.

Adult Beginners had its own next-gen distribution pattern, opening this weekend in 10 theaters and grossing $40,130 ($4,013 PTA). But the real story is the VOD gross, which RADiUS remains nearly unique in sharing. The company Adult Beginners grossed an estimated three-day of $211K.

“Adult Beginners did solid business theatrically on both coasts in line with other indie films like The One I Love ($48,059 opening gross in 8 theaters), but over indexed on VOD,” the company said in a release.

The company also touted its slate of other theatrical titles in release, noting that David Robert Mitchell’s thriller It Follows, which has had one of 2015’s best specialty runs, crossed the $14 million mark this weekend. The doc about college sexual assault, The Hunting Ground, crossed $300K, “on target to become the highest-grossing film from [filmmakers] Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering.”

RADiUS said that its Oscar-winner Citizenfour will officially end its theatrical run, grossing $2.8M in its 27th week. Citizenfour was also No. 1 on iTunes and Amazon charts over the weekend.

In other big weekend openers, Freestyle Releasing bowed Brotherly Love in 200 theaters, grossing $250K ($1,250 PTA), while Warner Bros. opened The Water Diviner – starring and directed by Russell Crowe – in 320 theaters. The film set after WWI in Turkey, opened modestly, grossing $1.25M ($3,906 PTA), despite grabbing awards in its previous debut in Australia.

On a more limited scale, Well Go USA opened Kung Fu Killer grossing $62K in 28 theaters ($2,214 PTA), and Tribeca Film bowed Misery Loves Comedy in one theater, grossing $5,250. Kino Lorber opened The Great Museum in a single location, grossing $2,500.

Among second-weekend holdovers, Fox Searchlight added 25 runs for True Story, grossing $1.175M in 856 theaters, averaging $1,373. the film opened with a $1.93M gross in 831 theaters last week. Its two-week cume is now almost $3.84M. Oscilloscope added three locations for Félix And Meira, grossing $26,358 ($6,590 PTA; $50,086 cume). The feature opened in a single theater last weekend, grossing just over $15K. Bloodvine Media added 5 runs for Armenian genocide doc 1915, grossing $13,340 ($1,334 PTA; $43,788 cume).

A24’s other breakout film, While We’re Young, grossed over $1.075M in 762 theaters in its 5th frame. The title averaged $1,411 and has cumed over $5.66M. While We’re Young is director Noah Baumbach’s second-highest grossing film ever, trailing only 2005 release The Squid And The Whale, at over $7.37M. That may not remain the case: While We’re Young is ahead of Squid’s grosses at this point in its release, though that title was in far fewer theaters. Squid And The Whale finished its fifth weekend with a $1.826M cume, though in only 81 theaters. Still, comedy While We’re Young could very well top Squid in the coming weeks.

And The Orchard added 40 runs for the third weekend of Dior And I, grossing $150K ($3,488 average). The Orchard noted that the Frédéric Tcheng-directed doc was “the top performer at the majority of its core venues ahead of next week’s nationwide expansion to over 100 screens, including initial openings in such major markets. Dior And I delivered a fantastic weekend across a broader set of art-house screens. Audiences and markets that are historically less passionate about fashion are showing up for the film, which is a testament to the artistry of the filmmaking and universal human elements of this story.”